“Allison! Are you coming or not?” Sasha called from the front door of Allison’s house.

“I’m on my way! Just let me quickly grab my purse!” Allison answered back as she snatched her bag from the coffee table and checked to make sure that she had everything that she would need for the day.

“Cell phone, wallet, make-up, keys...” Allison checked off. She nodded. Good, everything was there. She quickly grabbed her coat and pulled it on as she headed out the door to catch up with Sasha. Allison’s bright red hair blew across her face as the crisp autumn wind howled past.

“Because of your delay we might get caught in traffic,” Sasha noted as she nudged her best friend in a teasing manner. Allison rolled her eyes.

“I have a strange feeling that we’ll survive,” she replied as she got into the passenger seat of Sasha’s silver BMW.

The two of them had been planning this day for a long time. With their hectic work schedules constantly colliding and changing, they had had to reschedule several times, but now they were finally doing it.

Mall day.

The only good thing about working almost all of the time was the money that they now had to spend on stuff that looks nice but that they’ll probably only wear once before it gets lost in the wash. Oh well, that was half the fun.

Sasha and Allison were both 26 years old, and had been best friends ever since they could remember. They were neighbours since the very beginning and had always had a special bond throughout grade school, through college, and now.

Sasha honked the horn furiously.

“C’mon! Go!” she screamed, “It’s green for God’s sake! Where did you get your licence?!” she asked in an irritated tone as the car in front of them finally started to go. “Good boy! You found the gas peddle! Good for you!!” Sasha said as she applauded and then pulled up herself. Allison laughed.

“Only you Sasha...” Allison muttered.

“Hey! No! Did you see that? The light was green for a good five minutes before that chick decided to finally get her ass in gear and move up!” Sasha explained. Allison laughed some more.

“She’s a new driver; did you not see the N? Give her a break,”

“Nobody ever gave me a break when I was a new driver!” Sasha huffed, “It was always, you’re going to fast, you’re going to slow, and you’re tailgating, blah, blah, and blah!”

“What happened to you this morning? Did you fall out of bed onto some legos or something? Girl, you need to lighten up,” Allison joked. Sasha laughed.

“You’re right, sorry. Work has just been... ugh... I don’t even wanna talk about it. Let’s just enjoy ourselves today alright?” Sasha told her. Allison smiled and nodded her head.

“Sure thing,” she agreed. They were both in a much happier mood as they continued to drive towards the mall.

About 20 minutes later, they arrived and were out walking about.

“Alright, where to first Miss Mallory?” Allison asked. Sasha looked around and brought her hand to her chin, as if in deep thought.

“American Eagle,” she replied, “And then Forever 21, Pacsun, Sephora, Dynamite, Victoria’s Secret, Coach-“

“Okay, um... why not just say all of them?” Allison laughed. Sasha laughed as well as she scanned the area for the first store.

“American Eagle is right over there, onwards!” she exclaimed as she pointed towards the store and strutted over. Allison laughed and was walking right next to her. An hour went by before they finally exited the store.

“I’m never going in there again,” Allison muttered. Sasha laughed.

“And why not?” she asked, “I liked it.”

“Because you were flirting with all of the clerks!” Allison exclaimed. Sasha grinned mischievously as she looked back in the store’s direction.

“And what’s so wrong with having a little flirty fun?” she asked. Allison rolled her eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but we came here to shop, not to pick up hot guys,” Allison replied. Sasha frowned.

“Why can’t we do both?” she whined. Allison chuckled.

“Let’s head into Coach,” Allison suggested as she led the way to the next store.

By the end of the day, the two of them each had their arms full of numerous shopping bags filled with clothes, accessories, shoes, make-up, handbags... everything.

“I think we’re set for awhile,” Allison commented. Sasha smiled.

“Definitely!” she replied as she set her bags down next to her car and pulled her keys out of her pocket.

“Good thing there’s still two months until Christmas, ‘cause I have no more money left!” Allison giggled. Sasha laughed too.

“Thank God! If Christmas was coming soon we’d be screwed!” Sasha noted. They both laughed. Sasha flipped out her keys and her eyes widened. Her body froze.

“What is it Sash? What’s wrong?” Allison asked. Sasha slowly turned to face her friend, and held the key up. Allison’s mouth dropped.

“Alli... how is there a bite taken out of my key?” Sasha asked as she flipped the key around, examining it closer. Allison shrugged and tried to reply, but she was at a loss for words; completely speechless. How do you take a bite out of a key? She leaned in to examine it closer. Yes, it was definitely a bite; a perfect bite. That was odd, but she tried to shrug it off.

“I think I have your spare,” Allison finally managed to say as she pulled out her own keychain. She smiled when she realised that she did have Sasha’s spare, and there was no bite taken out of it. Sasha smiled as Allison handed her the key.

“Thanks Alli,” Sasha thanked as she unlocked the trunk and threw her bags in. Allison placed hers in the backseat. They both got into their seats. Sasha put the key in the ignition and turned it. The engine sputtered, and then faded off.

“Well that’s peculiar,” Sasha commented as she tried again. The engine nearly purred to life, but gave out again.

“What’s up with your car?” Allison asked. Sasha shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not sure!” Sasha replied as she tried again, but once again, ended up with the same disappointing result. She let out an exasperated sigh as she dropped back in her seat. She looked at Allison. “I hope you know how to fix a car,” Sasha told her. Allison let out a snort.

“Girl, I hope you bought walking shoes, because I know diddly squat when it comes to cars,” Allison chuckled. Sasha groaned as she held her head in her hands.

“I can’t believe this,” she mumbled.

“Aw Sash, it ain’t that bad! Honestly! We’ll just call a cab,” Allison said.

“I left my phone at home,” Sasha told her.

“Don’t worry,” Allison assured her, “I brought mine,” she said as she searched through her bag. Sasha watched her impatiently as she continued to search. “I know I brought it...” Allison muttered as a few minutes went by. Suddenly, fed up with this game of hide and seek she was playing with her phone, she dumped all of the contents from her purse out onto the dash.

“I don’t see nothing,” Sasha noted.

“What the Hell?! I swear I had it before I left!” Allison exclaimed. Was she going crazy? She definitely had her phone this morning!

“Do you think that you might have lost it?” Sasha asked. Allison shook her head.

“No way! Not possible! I keep it in its own secure pocket! It has a strap and everything! It couldn’t just fall out!” Allison exclaimed.

It would have to be taken out.

“Well, obviously it is possible, because it isn’t there anymore,” Sasha replied. Allison let out a breath of hot air.

Well this was great. Their Mall Day was turning out to be a real success wasn’t it?

“I guess we could catch a bus?”  Allison suggested in the form of a question. She wasn’t sure how Sasha would feel about taking the bus. There was a brief silence between the two of them.

“Let’s go,” Sasha finally agreed as they got out of the car, grabbed their bags and went to the nearest bus stop. Just as the bus stop was in sight, the bus pulled away.

“No!” Allison screamed.

“Are you kidding me?” Sasha yelled.

“Do you know when the next bus comes?” Allison asked. Sasha shook her head.

“No, but there’s a schedule at the stop, let’s check,” Sasha informed her as they marched over to the schedule. Allison looked at it and then groaned.

“What?” Sasha asked.

“That was the last bus for tonight, the next one doesn’t come until 5am, we’re better off just walking home,” Allison told her. Sasha groaned and rolled her eyes. She let out a sigh.

“Then we might as well get a move on,” Sasha said as the two of them started walking down the road towards Allison’s house since it was closer. Sasha was just going to have to sleep over for the night.

As they walked down the dark road, they both continued to complain.

“Shouldn’t have worn these damned heels!” Sasha moaned as each step caused her immense pain. After walking around all day in them, her feet were already sore, but now having to walk the entire way home in them! The cramps in her feet were beginning to become unbearable.

“I just wish we hadn’t bought so much stuff,” Allison said with a groan as she regained her grip on the bags in her hands, “We’re the perfect targets right now to get mugged!”

“Don’t say that! You’re freaking me out!’ Sasha told her.

“I’m just saying!” Allison exclaimed.

“Well don’t just say, just walk!” Sasha ordered. Allison couldn’t help but laugh a bit at this. Her laughter soon faded when the air suddenly got colder, the wind picked up and it started to rain.

“Fantastic,” Sasha growled, “There goes the hard work I put into my make-up this morning.”

“Just our luck ain’t it? I should have expected it to rain! Hell! I’m surprised it isn’t hailing!” Allison exclaimed, now in a very bad mood.

“Shh!” Sasha hushed her, “Don’t give Mother Nature any ideas!” Allison groaned as they continued walking. Suddenly, they noticed a pair of headlights coming in their direction.

“We could hitch hike,” Allison suggested. Sasha laughed and shook her head.

“No way, I don’t trust anyone in this area,” Sasha said. Allison frowned, but knew that her friend was right. Very rarely would someone pick up two girls for the right reasons...

As the car passed them by, they were both saddened, but their misery was soon taken over by fear when the car pulled up a couple meters ahead of them. They both exchanged glances.

“Shoot, Sasha what do we do?” Allison asked in a whisper. Sasha shrugged her shoulders.

“How the Hell am I supposed to know?” she asked. As the two of them fought over what they were supposed to do; they didn’t realise the man in black who had stepped out of the car and was coming their way. Suddenly, Sasha felt a rope (or something like a rope) being pulled around her neck. She grabbed at it and tugged on it to keep it from getting her choked. Allison screamed at the top of her lungs. She started throwing her bags at the man, and hitting him with them as hard as she possibly could. She didn’t even realise that she was doing it! It just came to her naturally! She wasn’t about to let some guy come and choke her best friend!

Suddenly, the man pulled out an object from a belt around his waist. Unfortunately, Allison couldn’t make out what it was immediately. However, when he ran the object across Sasha’s cheek, she was able to figure out that it was a knife as dark liquid dripped from the wound. Sasha let out a wail as she tried to get free, kicking and elbowing the man as hard as she could. To Sasha’s surprise, the man let go of her, but only to stick his foot in front of her feet to trip her. Sasha fell to the ground with a thud. When she tried to scramble back to her feet, she was only kicked in the stomach; hard. She let out a helpless noise as she curled herself up into a ball.

The man shot Allison a sharp, threatening look. Allison couldn’t see his eyes, but she could still feel them piercing into her. Out of fear and shock, Allison didn’t move; she remained completely paralysed where she stood. All of a sudden, the man swatted at her, bringing his hand to the side of her head. Allison let out a yelp as the sharp pain of his nails digging into her skin registered into her brain. As soon as he had made contact with her, she knew that he couldn’t be human. At least, not only human. He had to be some sort of mutant, hybrid thing… A monster maybe. His nails were far too long, far too sharp; they could slice her up like knives; a human’s finger nails wouldn’t do that. Unless the person had a particularly good manicurist but, she highly doubted it. 

Allison nearly stumbled to the ground, but managed to stay up on her feet after the blow to the side of her head. She kind of regretted it, because now she would have to endure another beating. When Allison regained her senses, she looked at the man, and was shocked to see that he was just standing there, breathing heavily. His breaths were very audible, not to mention very scary.

Why isn’t he moving? Why isn’t he coming for me? Allison asked herself. Suddenly, she felt something crawl underneath the hem of her shirt, up her body and to her neck. She started freaking out, jumping around and swatting at whatever was crawling up her! She felt a nip at her skin before she felt a huge wave of pain as she began to become disoriented and dizzy. She found herself falling to her knees, and slowly crumbling down onto her stomach before everything went black